A Little Something For Everyone.

Our Advice?Unless you've got a serious abuse fetish, stay out of the Capitol Rotunda today.
That's mostly because starting around 9 a.m. and running until ... well ... the end of time, lawmakers and others will hold a series of mostly meaningless press conferences designed to call attention to legislation that, if it was actually going anywhere, wouldn't need to have attention called to it in the first place.The fun starts at 9:30 a.m. when state Sen. Jane Orie, R-Allegheny, holds a newser on domestic violence -- we gather she's opposed. At 10 a.m.state Rep. Mike "Wants To Be Governor So Badly It Makes His Hair Hurt" Turzai, R-Allegheny, holds a press conference on unemployment compensation reform. He'll be joined by members of the PA Chamber of Business and Industry.Why does "reform" sound in this case like, "Do we really have to pay unemployment compensation?"At 10:30 a.m., there's dueling events in the Rotunda and the mini-rotunda in the Capitol's East Wing. You have your choice of legislation giving "second chances" to ex-offenders (big rotunda) or a robotics demonstration (little rotunda).Between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m., there's three more news conferences all competing for reporters' attention.It'll take a little work, but if we plan our day correctly, we might just be able to ignore them all.The rest of today's news starts after the jump.

So That's What They Mean By "Reform."Striking a blow for open government, the state House yesterday voted to reject proposals to
establish a commission to consider changes to the state constitution and against forcing a vote on legislation to shrink the size of the General Assembly.The House voted 118-83 to reject Rep. Dwight Evans' plan to establish the study commission, which would have examined potential amendments and recommended whether to convene a constitutional convention, the Associated Press reports this morning.Good government advocates opposed the bill, saying the convention should be put directly into the hands of The People, by which we're pretty sure they meant Tim Potts, Eric Epstein, Russ Diamond and Gene Stilp.Since that would sort of be the political equivalent of having the Constitution rewritten by Moe, Larry and Curly, as well as little known fourth Stooge, Joe, we're not unsympathetic to lawmakers' reluctance.The House also voted 136-65 against a rarely used "discharge" resolution that would have bypassed the chamber's State Government Committee and brought directly to the floor a proposal to trim the size of the 253-member General Assembly by one-fifth.We'll just stick this one in the "Do As I Say ..." file.

Speaking Of Reform ...... a state House panel could vote as soon as tomorrow on the first substantive changes to the
state's Open Records law in a half-century, the Patriot-News of Harrisburg reports this morning.Three different proposals to overhaul the 1958-vintage statute are currently making their way through the General Assembly. All of them are moving toward a law that presumes all records are public unless they're specifically exempted, the P-N reported.This is a big change from current thinking, which (unbelievably) requires citizens to prove to government why they should have access to a public record. State law presumes all records are private unless they meet the ridiculously narrow definition of being an account, voucher, contract, minute, order or decision.The House State Government Committee is expected to
vote Wednesday on a bill sponsored by Rep. Tim Mahoney, D-Fayette. That
vote could position the bill for a vote in the House next week,
committee Chairwoman Babette Josephs, D-Philadelphia, said. The House bill lists about two dozen records that can be kept private. Those records includeemployment or academic test questions, police investigation files and documents with Social Security numbers.The Senate State Government Committee, meanwhile,
is working on revisions to another bill sponsored by Senate
Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi, R-Delaware.

That Musty Odor You Smell ...... could be "loser stink" that's got some Lehigh Valley Democrats looking for an alternative to
15th Congressional District hopeful Sam Bennett.That's because Bennettraised a truly awful $28,000 during the three months between July and September, leaving her with a fraction of what her campaign says it will need to unseat GOP U.S. Rep. Charlie Dent, Our Man in Washington, Josh Drobnyk, reports this morning.''We know we have to do better and that's why late last month we made
these investments,'' Bennett's campaign consultant, Walter Ludwig, said, one eye steadily trained on greener pastures.Bennett has set herself up as a clear alternative to Dent on issues that mostly involve her Not Being Charlie Dent. Even still, some Democrats aren't thrilled with her.
''People here in the Valley might be registered Democrat, but a lot of
them have conservative values,'' Chris Casey, a Democrat who runs the
Lehigh Valley Political Blog, said. He said Bennett's inability to raise large
sums of money early on is a sign that ''we need a moderate'' candidate
in place of Bennett. Let the games begin.Where In The World Is Bob Casey? (TM)Not to be confused with some shoddy imitation on some other statewide political 'blog, a
recurring Capitol Ideas feature returns this morning to find Pennsylvania's junior United States senator taking an interest in "The Kids."At 10 a.m., Casey, along with the preternaturally boyish U.S. Rep. Charlie Dent, R-15th District, will gather to "discuss the importance of increasing public awareness and educating families and teenagers on preventing accidents involving teenagers."We swear to God, someone (presumably a native English speaker) actually inflicted that sentence on us this morning.Media savvy to the end, Casey and Dent will hold their event at a venue designed to reach the largest number of teenagers possible: Room 1310 of the Longworth House Office Building.We here at Capitol Ideas also care deeply about the next generation. And, so that the Youth of America may be spared the sight of two middle-aged white men lecturing them on how to live their lives, we shall offer an abbreviated version of Casey and Dent's event below. Ready? Here it is:"Hey! Kids! Don't Crash Into Nothin'!!!"We now return you to your regularly scheduled 'blog, already in progress ...

Helping You Plan Your Tuesday.As we mentioned earlier,the Pennsylvania Robotics Team holds a demonstration of their work in the Capitol's East Wing Rotunda at 1 p.m.. Should be fascinating -- since we're big fans of artificial intelligence.Speaking of robots, the Senate also convenes at 1 p.m.EdWatch (TM).Fresh off his command performance at last night's annual Gridiron Dinner (sorry kids, the whole event's off the record. Can't tell you about it), Gov. Ed's off to the wilds of Western PA today.At 2:30 p.m., he's slated to visit new Pre-K classrooms at White Oak Elementary School in McKeesport, Allegheny County. Then, at 6:30 p.m., he's slated to speak at the Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy Dinner at The Pennsylvanian in Pittsburgh.

In The Blogosphere:Keystone Politics on Sam Bennett's fund-raising woes; Perry Christopher does not have a Man-Crush on Tom Brady (glad we cleared that up); PAWatercooler says breaking unions doesn't happen often enough these days (very undemocratic of you, kids); PSoTD favors term-limits for the Washington press corps (hmmm ... might finally open the door for us); Suburban Guerrilla on state secrets; Mark Rauterkus on a plan to not elect a Democrat in Pittsburgh (in related news, Earth plunges into Sun); Daily Kos is still upset over the SCHIP veto; Red State takes a closer look at a California congressional race; Wonkette has your daily briefing; DCist has our Picture of the Day (TM); Powerline on Annapolis Syndrome; Arianna Huffington interviews Nancy Pelosi, and James Wolcott on the East/West Divide.

On The Capitol Ideas iPod This Morning.Some days, we just find ourselves craving the musical equivalent of comfort food. And when that happens, we inevitably turn to Australian psych-rockers, The Church. We've been fans of these guys for more than 20 years now, and every time we return to their voluminous catalog, we find something new. From their 1986 LP "Heyday," here's the clip for "Already Yesterday."

Current Comments

For the sake of clarification: The Gridiron dinner is not a public event. It's wholly paid for by the Pennsylvania Legislative Correspondents Association, the umbrella group of the state Capitol press corps.
The dinner raises money for the PLCA's summer internship program.
The event has been historically off-the-record. And, in this case, it seems appropriate to keep it that way.

Gooder for the goose than the gander.
The Gridiron is 'off limits'.
No government record, discussion, or opinion should ever be.
Seems where you stand creates your pov.
(for the record, it would seem both estates deserve a lot of gentlemanly lattitude--- and neither will ever give it).

Posted By: incafire | Oct 16, 2007 11:23:26 AM

Leave A Comment

NOTE: Please express your opinions in a civil and respectful manner. Insensitive, inflammatory and derogatory comments will be removed at our discretion.